Overview

The invention of the steam engine and the development of the railroad system were instrumental in creating the Industrial Revolution beginning in the late eighteenth century and continuing into the nineteenth century. Industrialization changed Western society radically, and the railroad was a primary tool of that change.

Background

The Industrial Revolution is defined as the change from the making of products by hand to their manufacture by machinery. Its development in Europe and then the Western Hemisphere between 1780 and 1880 triggered monumental social and political changes that altered Western society. It destroyed traditional ways of life and created new ones. This movement began in England, because England already had overseas markets, because a commercial class already...